Ben
Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. lead an ensemble
cast in "Tropic Thunder," an action comedy about
a group of self-absorbed actors who set out to make the most
expensive war film. After ballooning costs force the studio
to cancel the movie, the frustrated director refuses to stop
shooting, leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia,
where they encounter real bad guys.

Movie Review:

Stay away from this movie if any of the below items irritate
your self righteousness self – rude racial stereotypes,
jokes about the mentally retarded, offensively foul fart gags
and politically incorrect portrayals of opium traders. Heck,
this movie doesn’t even bother to be geographically
accurate – why does a panda appear in the Vietnam forest
all of a sudden? Everything about this movie is just for laughs,
and if you have decided to have a serious day out at the movies,
you may want to stay away from this Ben Stiller directed comedy.

And
we mean far, far away.

Taking
into no consideration how fat, mentally challenged or ethnic
people would feel, Stiller brings together a respectable cast
to make a movie about making a movie. Together with screenwriters
Etan Cohen (Idiocracy) and first timer Justin Theroux, the
Saturday Night Live alumnus tells a unique story about how
a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced
to become the soldiers they are portraying in the dangerous
forests of Vietnam. No thanks to a series of freak occurrences,
they meet dangerous warlords and yes, there will be blood.

The
cast is a hoot to watch. Stiller (The Heartbreak Kid) himself
plays an action movie star who is used to the wham and bam
of things. His deadpan expressions are as funny as his, err,
newfound and well developed biceps. Robert Downey Jr. (Iron
Man) plays a serious movie actor who takes things a little
too seriously in the wilderness of things, and you know sparks
will fly when these two characters meet. Jack Black (Be Kind
Rewind) plays a fat brat whose franchise of slapstick movies
involve characters in fat suits are overshadowed by his drug
addiction. Throw in other characters like an angst ridden
war veteran, a consumer product endorsing rapper, a narcissistic
celebrity agent, a foul mouthed movie producer and a poor
director who gets blown up by land mines a quarter into the
movie, and you’d get a riotous comedy that will have
you roaring in laughter throughout its 107 minute runtime.

The
movie wastes no time in setting up the laughs. The faux movie
trailers that kick start the picture are so superbly produced,
we’d pay the price of another ticket just to see more.
Then the outrageously hilarious movie charges from one joke
to another, making fun of the Hollywood system amongst other
things. And that is why this is no shallow jesting movie –
it’s got a out of this world brand of hilarity and absurdity
that comments on the well, hilarity and absurdity of the system
that is working out there.